A drawworks is a power transmission apparatus used in connection with the drilling of oil and other petroleum wells. The drawworks includes a winch or hoist which is used for lowering pipe into a well and for withdrawing pipe from a well, as well as other power supplying elements, such as for rotation of the rotary drilling table, and the making up and disconnecting of threaded joints between pipes. The power for a drawworks is supplied by one or more engines, or by one or more electric motors. Drawworks include a power input shaft which is driven by the engines or electric motors, and from which power is taken to drive a cable drum shaft in rotation, the cable of which is run over various sheaves pulleys to lower and raise well pipe in the well, and a so-called cat shaft which had so called cathead fittings at one or both ends and is used to engage ropes employed for threading and unthreading threaded joints between pipe lengths, and a rotary shaft which is used to rotate the rotary table of the drilling apparatus. Various clutches are included in the drawworks apparatus for the purpose of connecting shafts for rotation and for releasing the shafts to be nonrotated. The clutches of the drawworks are usually air actuated. The drum shaft carries a drum or spool used to carry a length of cable wound thereon, and, in conventional drawworks equipment, is provided with a pair of brakes, one at each end of the drum. The brakes are provided to resist paying out of the cable from the drum. The brakes are usually of a type including a cylindrical outwardly facing braking surface against which a series of brake blocks fixed on a brake band are forced by operation of a lever to tighten the brake band about the braking surface. The conventional apparatus includes an equalizer bar so that one lever operates both brakes and so that the braking pressures of each brake are substantially equal. This arrangement has resulted in at least one of the brakes being relatively inexcessible for inspection, servicing or repair by the workmen on the drilling platform. The brakes are exposed to relatively severe service, since they must be capable of resisting high pipe loads suspended from the cable and for stopping of such loads from moving to stopped conditions. This invention seeks to provide a drawworks apparatus wherein the drum shaft brake is more accessible for examination and repair than is the case with conventional drawworks apparatuses.